Medicare, comic strip, and diapers: Letters

There is a plan afoot to change the rules about protected drugs now covered by Medicare Advantage and Part D plans. As it stands, insurance providers must cover all drugs in a protected class, because they are vital to seniors' health. Availability allows physicians the trial and error necessary to find effective outcomes for patients. Included in the protected class are antidepressants and immunosuppressants.

Under the new rules, protected drugs would include only those required to keep patients out of the hospital or from being disabled if they had to be without the drug for seven days. That seems more like restricting availability to life-and-death issues rather than supporting good health.

Further, I find it frightening that the legitimacy of owning and using handguns is increasing while the availability and proper use of antidepressants will be decreasing. It sounds like a lethal combination to me. And it will happen if citizens do not make known their objection to the new drug regulation.

Please join me in fighting this change by contacting the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Our citizens deserve better than this.

Kathy Kennedy Orlando

Lawmakers should clarify road rules

While I wholeheartedly agree with SB 392, which raises the speed limit, I have a concern about increased dangers on the highways.

These dangers already exist because of the left-lane-hog mentality, which causes erratic driving, unnecessary maneuvers and speed inconsistency, all of which contribute to road rage. It is unclear as to whether "slower traffic keep right" or "keep right except to pass" is law or just a courtesy or a suggestion in Florida.

Regardless of the outcome of the bill, the Legislature should clarify this as a rule of law, with commensurate education and enforcement. Failure to do so will undoubtedly result in increasingly dangerous roads, a frustrated public and greater costs.

These increased costs are also likely to be combined with a less desirable business and leisure-travel environment, among the many backbones of our state's economy.

Michael Dabby Maitland

Revealing comic strip

Every day I enjoy reading Dilbert and Doonesbury comic strips. I also read the antithesis of Doonesbury — Mallard Fillmore — only because it's next to Doonesbury on the page.

Bruce Tinsley, in his Mallard Fillmore strip, likes to bad-mouth public schools often. I have thought of the irony that almost nine out of 10 of the readers of Tinsley's strip can do so because of their public-school educations. I've even wondered if Tinsley himself went to public schools.

Now I wonder no more. His recent strip, indicating that global warming is a hoax because it's cold outside, tells me he did not go to public schools. If he had, he would have taken science and learned the difference between weather and climate.

Richard Johnson DeLand

Diet plans up to individual taste

After reading the article "Intermittent fasting gains ground in Tuesday's Sentinel, I take exception to professor Susan B. Roberts' characterization of the 5:2 diet as one that not many people can do.

As one of thousands worldwide who have found the intermittent-fasting approach to healthier living, I can say I never get lethargic or hungry, as Roberts says happens. She also says people get "inward looking because your body absolutely knows it is in emergency conditions ... I think it would ruin your life." Ridiculous.

When I first heard of Michael Mosley's "The Fast Diet" and went looking for the book, I was amazed at the staggering number of diet books on the shelf, including Roberts' book, "The 'I' Diet." I watched the BBC's "Eat, Fast and Live Longer" on YouTube, read Mosley's book and was motivated to begin.

After nine months, I am at a weight I have not seen in 20 years. It's been the easiest-to-manage diet I have ever tried. I am as full of energy on "fast days" as any other day.

Losing weight with any plan is not easy. You have to be committed to giving up some of the good-tasting things. Different plans will appeal to different people, and that makes them successful.

I don't think Roberts' criticism of intermittent fasting is fair. She can promote the benefits of her diet without giving false impressions about other plans that can provide healthful and successful outcomes for many others.

Howard N. Goldsmith Kissimmee

Something's wrong with this picture

Let me see if I read this right. In Thursday's Sentinel, there were three separate headlines that caught my eye: "Lake County deputy accused of sexual assault of woman on New Year's Day," "Ex-police chief gets 8 years for perjury" and "Orlando officer faces DUI charge after incident." The latter also kicked out the back window of a patrol car in a combative rage against the arrest.

I certainly feel safer now. This news brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "to protect and to serve."

Dennis Gibbs St. Cloud

Politicians, diapers

Regarding Scott Maxwell's column, "Florida politicians asking for secrecy, term extensions," in Friday's Sentinel: It would behoove Floridians to heed the sage advice of the voters of the old 14th Ward in Toledo, Ohio, that went like this: "Politicians, like diapers, should be changed often and for the same reason."